Nini's Story
by Summer Sweetheart
Summary: One night, Kya tells Katara the story of her friend Nini. Katara meets Nini in her dreams. Could Nini still be out there, still trying to get warm?


So I thought of this fic on Wednesday while watching The Puppetmaster episode. That night, I had to type it up before Halloween. So here we are, the day before. I tried to make it all creepy, so I hope I succeeded. Enjoy!

xxx

It was a windy night in the Southern Water Tribe. Kya was tucking her seven-year-old daughter into bed while her husband and son were helping the other men of the village store the animals after the men's hunt earlier in the evening.

"What story would you like to hear tonight, Katara?" Kya asked.

"I dunno," Katara said. "I wanna hear something scary though!" She sat up in her bed with an excited look on her face.

"Are you sure you won't be scared?" Kya gently pushed Katara back down and adjusted the blankets again.

"Yeah, I won't be scared!" Katara looked up at her mother expectantly.

"Alright. Hope this isn't too scary though!" Kya smiled at her daughter. She cleared her throat and began.

"Well, one winter when I was little, not too much older than you, there was a horrible snowstorm. We stayed indoors for days as the storm buried the whole village."

"This isn't so scary!" Katara said.

"Be patient my little Waterbender," Kya tapped Katara on the nose. The little girl laughed.

"Anyway, eventually, everything cleared up and we were able to go back outside. But after about a month, I had realized that I hadn't seen my friend Nini since before the storm, so me and a few other people from the village went to their house to check on them, but no one was there… but we noticed that there was a fire in the fireplace, which was odd since no one was home. So the men decided to go out and search for Nini and her family, but I decided to stay behind. I just looked around at their house to see if I could find anything suspicious, but everything looked the same. Then, I heard a voice behind me saying 'It's so cold and I can't get warm…' I turned around and saw Nini standing by the fire."

"So she was alive?" Katara asked.

"Not quite," Kya said. "Nini was blue, like she was frozen. So I ran outside and yelled for the men to come back because Nini was there but she was frozen. But when we got back into the house, Nini was gone."

"Where'd she go?" Katara asked, her eyes widening.

"No one knows," Kya said in a creepy voice. "Nini's house still stands empty, even to this day, as no one wants to live in a house where a whole family disappeared."

"I don't blame them," Katara said quietly. Her mother just laughed and continued.

"Anyway, sometimes, we would see smoke rising from the chimney of the abandoned house. We think that little Nini is still in there, trying to get warm."

Silence followed the end of the story, broken only by the sounds of the men outside. After a few seconds, Katara spoke.

"Wow. That was scary!"

"You sure you'll be able to sleep after that?" Kya asked her daughter.

Katara nodded. "Of course! It wasn't _that_ scary!"

Kya smiled. "Alright. Goodnight Katara."

"Night, mom."

Despite the fact that the story did scare Katara a little bit, she was able to fall asleep fairly quickly. But her sleep was far from sound.

Katara found herself in an empty house. All that was in the house was a fireplace, where a fire had been lit. Katara looked around. She appeared to be alone.

"Hello?" she called out.

Katara thought, and even hoped, that all would remain silent. However, she didn't have to wait long for a response.

"It's so cold!" she heard from behind her. "And I can't get warm!" Katara was frozen in fear. She didn't want to turn around in fear of what she might see when she finally did.

Curiosity getting the best of her, Katara turned around every so slowly. She saw a little girl by the fire. She only saw the girl's back, but from what Katara saw, she looked to be about nine or ten. Like the girl in her mother's story, she was blue.

"N-Nini?" Katara asked. It was then that she noticed she was shaking. Whether it was from the cold or out of fear, it was hard to tell, though Katara suspected the latter.

The little girl by the fire turned to look at Katara. She looked scary. Her eyes were sunken in, her long hair framed her face, and her hair was watered down, like she had spent all day swimming in the ocean.

"Is that you Nini?" Katara asked. The little girl nodded.

"I've been waiting for you, Katara." Nini said.

Katara took a few steps backwards. "W-what?"

"I said I've been waiting for you Katara," she repeated, coming towards the younger girl.

Katara took a few more steps backwards. "How do you know my name?"

"Why are you so scared of me?" Nini didn't even address Katara's question.

"You look scary! Please leave me alone!" Katara cried out. She hoped that someone would come inside and save her. Unfortunately, no such thing happened.

"I just want you to help me," Nini was still making her way towards Katara, albeit slowly.

"H-help you with what?" Katara's back was now up against the wall. There was nowhere else to go.

"I can't get warm," Nini said yet again.

"W-well, maybe you can… go back by the fire? Katara suggested. She would've loved nothing more for Nini to get away from her.

"It doesn't help," she said sadly. She was mere feet from Katara at this point. "I've been trying to get warm for a long, long time, but I just can't."

"Then maybe try a blanket, I dunno, just please let me go!" Katara would've made a bolt for the door, but her legs felt like jelly. She couldn't move. It was like she was frozen to the spot.

"Oh, I don't think I can do that," Nini was now directly in front of Katara. "You see, I've waited a long time for someone to come and find me and help me. Now, you have to stay with me. Help me warn up. You're never leaving."

Nini reached out an ice blue hand and grabbed Katara's upper arm. Her hand was freezing; like it was drenched in the ocean in the dead of winter. Katara felt the cold overtake her. It felt like she was drowning. She couldn't move; she couldn't scream.

Katara jolted up in her bed and looked around. Hours must've passed. The moon was high in the sky and she saw Sokka, her parents, and her grandmother fast asleep in the room with her. Thankfully, they were the only people she saw in the room. Nini was nowhere in sight. She sighed and looked out the window, seeing the moonlight gleaming into the room. Katara watched as a gust of wind blew some loose snow over the ground. She shivered and pulled the blanket higher on her body.

Suddenly, something outside caught her eye. In the distance, she saw an old, abandoned house. In the short time she lived, Katara had never seen that house occupied. She wondered if that house was the very house from the story; where Nini and her family lived; the house from her dream. She never really thought about that before; it had never really come up why that house was always empty. Obviously, Katara thought, no one had lived there for many years. No one really spoke of the abandoned house anymore. It must've been the talk of the town when her mother was a girl, but over time, people just came to accept it.

Katara was lost in these thoughts for several minutes, but she was brought back to reality by a curious sight that had caught her eye. As she looked back at that house, she thought she saw smoke coming from the chimney. It appeared that, after all these years, little Nini was still trying to get warm.

xxx

Please review. Happy Halloween!


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